Form fill packaging machines for forming, filling, and sealing flexible pouches containing products are used throughout the world. These machines provide the ability to package products along a continuous assembly line using heat seal wrapping material films, which are formed and then sealed around the product. These machines are used in many industries, including, but not limited to, the food industry, medical industry, textile industries, and the consumer products industry.
Generally, a form fill packaging machine may be comprised of indexed stations, each station performing a particular task. For example, in a forming station, a bottom film of the heat seal wrapping material may come off a continuous roll. The forming station will heat the bottom film to create a predefined cavity shape which may comprise a plurality of cavities. The bottom film may then be indexed to a loading station while still connected to the continuous roll. At the loading station, product may be placed in the cavity. The bottom film with the product positioned in the cavity may then be indexed to a sealing station. At the sealing station, a top film of the heat seal wrapping material coming off a different continuous roll is placed over the bottom film. A sealing die assembly then compresses the top film to the bottom film while applying heat, and if applicable, evacuating air around the product to form a vacuum seal around the product. The heat and pressure attaches the top film to the bottom film. The now attached top and bottom films with the sealed product are then indexed to a cutting station where the top and bottom films are cut off from their respective rolls.
The sealing die assembly used at the sealing station must apply a large amount of force to attach the top film to the bottom film. One drawback of these types of assemblies is that as a result of the required force, a sealing gasket located between a sealing die box and a sealing head must have enough surface contact area to offset the forces applied by and between the sealing die box and sealing head. Manufacturers of form fill packaging machines have generally added surface contact area to the sealing gasket by widening the sealing die box, sealing head, and sealing gasket in the direction perpendicular to the directional path the top and bottom films are indexed along, also known as the longitudinal path. This solution, however, results in a requirement for wider top and bottom film rolls which will thereby result in additional scrap material when the attached top and bottom films are cut off from the respective continuous rolls.